Investigation of the causes of the cholera epidemic in Haiti will be carried out by Russian experts
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The expert group of the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the causes of the epidemic of cholera in Haiti will include Russian specialists. This was told to RIA Novosti by the chief state sanitary doctor of the Russian Federation Gennady Onishchenko. The epidemic, which began in the country in mid-October 2010, has now affected more than 150,000 people, more than three thousand of whom have died. Haitians suspected of spreading the infection of UN peacekeepers who arrived from Nepal. In their opinion, Nepalese merged the sewage into the tributary of the Artibonite River. However, none of the peacekeepers was sick with cholera, and the analysis of river water conducted by the Haitian Ministry of Health did not reveal a cholera vibrio. In early December, French epidemiologist Reno Piaru prepared a report in which he called the base of peacekeepers the only plausible source of infection. The content of this report leaked into the world's media, which drew the attention of the top UN leadership. The head of the peacekeeping forces of the organization Alain Le Roy in mid-December 2010 said that WHO would form an independent international commission of "best experts" to investigate the causes of the epidemic. As it became known, the commission will include Russian specialists. "We made proposals to this independent expert group, which should work on behalf of Ban Ki-moon to identify the causes of the outbreak," Onishchenko said and added that these proposals were supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the commander-in-chief, the epidemic situation in Haiti and in the neighboring Dominican Republic "continues to be alarming." In this regard, Rospotrebnadzor employees examined 20,315 thousand passengers and 219 crew members of 123 planes that arrived in the Russian Federation from the Dominican Republic. No cases of cholera have been identified, but Onishchenko does not exclude the possibility of importation of the infection.
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